Psychological Noirfare

An observation by many erstwhile critics was that the focus of film noir, was often dedicated to individual paranoia and psychological and sociological disturbances. What attributed to this theory, was the fact by the 1940s, there was a national awareness of psychoanalysis in the United States. Freudian concepts and motifs present themselves in many a noir. Respective characters are often governed, propelled by prurient desire, frequently of a perverse nature and in a sense that alludes to deep psychological damage, thus contributing it's own certain frisson to the film itself.

Dream montages are commonly utilized to shed light on some crucial aspect of the plot, and the signature noir devices of narration and flashback clearly host parallels with the way psychoanalysis talks over the past in order to unravel the problems and issues in the present . In the 1940s. noir efforts in particular, with their elaborately stylized cinematography and specific lighting indicate a highly subjective and disturbed point of view.


On a decidedly more topical level, psychiatrists and psychoanalysts play key roles in a number of noirs, not always in a positive light. In Otto Preminger's Whirlpool (penned by Ben Hecht) a sinister hypnotherapist cum Svengali achieves a  hold over a troubled, kleptomaniac woman, whose psychoanalyst husband is too impervious to be aware of her problems. One of the most celebrated of all 'Fruedian' noirs is Hitchock's Spellbound, ironically also scribed by Ben Hecht, which is set in a mental asylum, where the director is on the fringe of retiring as a new doctor is expected to fill the positon. Unfortunately as Hitchcock confessed, an uncomfortable tension exists and pervades throughout, in this film between the rather earnest outlining of psychoanalysis and the demands of a good solid thriller.




Spellbound
dir Alfred Hitchcock, 1945

                            Miss Bergman takes the hypocritical oath to a whole new level.


Gregory Peck is Dr Edwardes, a novice psychiatrist who has recently become director of a mental hospice. His own demeanor, however is erratic, which prompts Ingrid Bergman's brilliant, yet emotionally cool doctor to suspect that this man isn't exactly who he claims to be. After falling hopelessly and torridly in love with him, she helps him elude the police, when he is accused of homicide, and then attempts to cure his wicked ways through the means of dream analysis - a surreal sequence that was designed by no other than painter Salvador Dali. The film boasts a noirish feel, rather than being a bona fide film noir. The eventual plot incongruity and moments shambolic , do not deter the film being engrossing, a feat easily accomplished by the Suspense world's reigning King.

                        Tierney got a good bargain on her ensemble at the Five Finger Shop






Whirlpool
dir Otto Preminger, 1949


The gorgeous Gene Tierney portrays Ann Sutton, an affluent socialite with a dark secret - kleptomania. Married to a neglectful psychoanalyst  (Richard Conte) she soon falls prey to David Korvo (Jose Ferrer) a hypnotherapist with a sadistic agenda. The musical high point commences when Ann's hypnotic trance is triggered by a clock striking. Composer David Raskin (1912-2004) takes the notes of his chimes and builds on them until they crescendo and transcend into an increasingly insistent and sustained passage of music - as Ann drives to the home of her nemesis.